Special Investigations Division: Pax Romana

by Loki's Son

The Nova Romans of 492 IV have ventured out into the stars. The SID team is sent to assess if there's a potential threat and if there is another alien contiminant in the culture.

2. Chapter 2

37

Admiral Drake cleared her throat before stepping behind the podium situated alongside the viewer mounted in the briefing room's wall. The table facing the viewer curved so as to grant an uninhibited view to all seated. It also created the psychological image of a scimitar in the presenter's mind, and considering the power vested in the personages seated before Drake; it was little wonder why. The movers and shakers of Starfleet were rarely assembled in one place together due to security concerns but Drake's intel had drawn them in from across the quadrant.

There was far more than a viewer mounted within these walls. Between the transport inhibitors, communication jammers, subspace field distorters, electrostatic shields, and the small army of Security personnel waiting outside the armoured doors, one could well and truly say this was perhaps the most secure location on Earth. It was rumoured the Federation President didn't have such security but only because he didn't need it as much. The old joke reflected the conventional wisdom that such precautions were only undertaken to prevent an assault upon the officials gathered. No one ever realised that these labyrinthine precautions were designed to keep the secrets spoken within from ever escaping, and thereby harming, an unsuspecting public.

Each person in this room was there only because their position mandated them with the care and maintenance of the shroud of secrecy that surrounded the topic they were about to discuss. Only three other people outside of Starfleet held access to this information, not including the President. The highest ranking members of the Foreign Affairs and Interior Affairs cabinets in the Federation Council, along with the President's Interplanetary Security Advisor, were sworn into silence and monitored through the use of a cortical implant insuring they did not reveal to anyone that which they'd been entrusted with.

Less than a dozen civilisations or worlds fell under the regulations requiring these methods. Most had received their classifications requiring such extreme consideration over a century ago. As the Federation's science and borders expanded, so did her ability to deal with the new and outré. Now only these few remaining planets held the strictest of quarantines and even they had been quiet throughout living memory. Until now, that is.

Seated around the table were Alynna Nechayev, Drake's boss and Director of Starfleet Intelligence. Beside Nechayev sat Bill Ross, victorious commander of the Dominion War campaign and CO of the 7th and 9th Fleets. Next came Edward Jellico, the former starship captain and Director of Starfleet Operations. Jaroess Marrine, the first Ktarian flag officer and the Director of Starfleet Security, occupied the last seat set out for the meeting.

"Can we get on with this?" Jellico asked curtly, "I have a million things scheduled after this… and had been hoping to get a full nights rest."

"I apologise for the hour, Admiral Jellico." Drake bit her tongue on her preferred reply, "I have no control over when the Sanctuary Protocols will be invoked, only the natives of the worlds under their jurisdiction can be asked for a little consideration regarding one's own schedule."

Jellico turned a fuming shade of red and Nechayev mentally composed a congratulatory note to her protégé as Drake pressed on, "As a matter of procedure I have to remind you all that you are bound under Article 2 of the Sanctuary Protocols and no discussion of this meeting will transpire with any other sentients other than the duly designated members of the Federation Council and Executive Office. Only after a unanimous consent of all members can details of these Protocols or worlds under their protection be disseminated to other beings."

Drake took a deep breath, drawing sympathetic chuckles; "That being said, we have trouble."

Dryly, Marrine replied; "We would assumed so since we were all summoned with such urgency and haste. I do not wish to mirror Edward Jellico's impatience but my curiosity is overwhelming me."

Drake smiled humourlessly, "The world in question, like most of those falling under the Sanctuary Protocols, was discovered over a century ago. Again like most of the others, it was found by none other than Captain James T. Kirk. Between his first and second five-year exploration missions, Kirk discovered and made contact with two-thirds of the Sanctuary planets. It was the reaction of members of his crew that inspired Starfleet Command to install the Protocols in order to prevent quadrant-wide panic based upon rumours and theories of the existence of these worlds. Each planet was removed from the Federation's navigational charts, their surrounding sectors declared quarantined owing to lethal contamination and warning and surveillance buoys put in orbits throughout the sectors surrounding the individual star systems."

Marrine smiled indulgently, "And the system as been running smoothly for a century. Why are you summoning us here with vague threats with no supportive facts?"

"At 1743 hours, PST, Earth Standard Orbit, we received a fragmentary distress signal from a decommissioned Oberth-class surveyor released by Starfleet to the Daystrom Institute. They'd monitored explosions near star system 492 while conducting a non-invasive astrometric survey of the Regelious sector and went to investigate. At nearly that same time, Starfleet Communications lost contact with not one or two of our surveillance buoys surrounding 492, but with all of them. The last piece of data received was final burst transmission from the Daystrom ship, SS Countess, saying they were under attack from unknown forces. Nothing further has been heard since."

"You'll have to forgive me for not having brushed up on all these planets before," Jellico asked with far more humility than before, "but why are we monitoring this 'star system '492'?"

"492 IV is one of the Sanctuary worlds surveyed by James Kirk. The Enterprise, the original that is, was searching for a missing Federation survey ship, the SS Beagle. The Enterprise came across a badly damaged Beagle locked in a decaying orbit over an M-class world." Drake's features darkened, "In his haste to search for the missing civilians, Kirk failed to note the pivotal detail that would play so heavily in Commander Spock's Science Report. The M-class planet underneath the Enterprise was an exact duplicate of Earth."

"A Preserver World." Ross deduced grimly. Starfleet possessed an institutional distrust of the Preserver artefacts and planets left scattered across the quadrant, and presumably the galaxy. The very soul of the Prime Directive flew in the face of the practices of a species that would pull primitive beings from their world and place them on an entirely new world constructed by unknown means to match their old. Since most of those societies had subsequently self-destructed, the whole scheme began to smack of enigmatic experiments callously played out upon unwitting subjects.

"492 IV is one of the few of the Earth type worlds that hasn't been reduced by war or plague to a new barbarism. The culture discovered there was one comparable to the late Industrial Age in the Social Technology Scale or Earth's mid-20th century. Separation, time, and the Preservers' choices for test subjects bred some differences between Earth and her counter-part, but on the whole, the technological base was surprisingly similar."

Drake's eyes narrowed as she continued, "The single largest difference was that 492 IV was ruled by the Roman Empire. Labelling this second Roman civilisation the Nova Roman Empire, theorist have surmised that the ancestral Nova Romans came from Republican times evidenced by the convention of titling their leader as 'Proconsul' rather than as 'Emperor'. With the Preservers apparently providing the same localised 'barbarians' to contend with as their Earth analogue, the Nova Romans had roughly the same pressures and pitfalls to face as the Romans of Earth's past."

"This history lesson is well and good," Jellico interjected, "but where is it leading and what is its point?"

"The point is that over one hundred years ago, Captain Kirk found a world governed by a martial philosophy whose every sense of values revolved around displays of strength and conquest. This same world had only recently begun constructing combustible fuel groundcars and unstable airships. The Nova Romans were still developing the technology to place a satellite in orbit around their world."

Drake's eyes bored in on Jellico's, "In one hundred years, they have advanced their technological base by an estimated three hundred year period as well as provided evidence of possessing cloaking technology."

"This is disturbing." Marrine agreed, "How was this possible?"

Drake shook her head; "Due to the very nature of the very nature of the Sanctuary Protocols, we have no way of knowing. The Nova Romans were left with the remains of the Beagle as well as the information divulged by Captain Merrick of the races and technology beyond 492 IV. That being said, the Nova Romans shouldn't have been able to reverse engineer 23rd century technology in only one century just as they shouldn't have been able to construct a cloaking device since neither Federation civilian craft nor starships ever carried such a device in that era. My analysts and I agree that only leaves the possibility that another group or race as assisted the Nova Romans in their efforts."

Marrine and Jellico fidgeted uncomfortably as the latter spoke, "What makes you draw such a conclusion and who authorised you to grant access to this data to any personnel."

Nechayev stirred to Drake's defence but the younger woman waved her off, "In case you don't recall, operational jurisdiction regarding Sanctuary matters became part of the Special Investigation Division's mandate at its inception. A select analysis team monitors all transmissions and data received from the observatory buoys and all are sworn under the same oaths and bound by the same security precautions. This team, and I personally reviewed and endorsed their findings, suggest that the Nova Roman's remarkable technical progress is inconceivable without outside support. Rumours from the borders of Romulan and Breen space suggest the existence of an unknown race beyond charted space that is more than technically capable of offering such support."

"So you're basing this recommendation on rumours and guesswork?" Jellico asked between clenched teeth.

"If I may remind you Eddie, more often than not, intelligence is nothing more than smoke and vapours made into substance through hard work and insight." Nechayev mirthfully reminded Jellico.

Jellico harrumphed as Drake moved on to the next item, "The SID, like Starfleet Intelligence, employs mainline Starfleet officers as well as irregulars."

"Mercenaries." Marrine commented sourly, "Guns for hire."

"Seeing as how most of the irregulars are former Starfleet officers, what does that assessment say about our service?" Drake asked meekly.

Marrine flushed as the briefing resumed, "The point of using irregulars, typically hired as contractors or consultants through secondary organisations, is to achieve legal plausible deniability. With the freedom to move across borders denied access to Starfleet, irregulars can then investigate matters inaccessible to Starfleet Intelligence. If captured, Starfleet can legally deny culpability but remains free to assist in diplomatic measures as well as any covert rescue operations."

"I assume you're planning on sending an irregular team to 492 IV." Bill Ross spoke up; "My only question is why an irregular team versus a mainline team?"

Drake nodded and changed the viewer's image, "The Sanctuary Protocols mandate that Starfleet personnel are to be used in the containment of a Sanctuary world only if no further recourse were available. The area around 492 is quarantined space and full disclosure would have to be made in order to convince a starship captain to violate a Federation edict. Starfleet Intelligence ships and crews could perform the mission but then they would constrained by the same security precautions as the rest of us."

"That still doesn't explain using civilians." Jellico spat.

"Our civilian teams have been thoroughly vetted. Most of the members are highly skilled former Starfleet personnel. These are small teams of eight to fifteen people. Which is a small number of potential persons to detain and relocate to a secure location in case of a security breach. These people have proven their loyalty to Starfleet and, most of all, repetitively to the Federation itself and the ideals it stands for."

"Well put." Ross congratulated with an appreciative nod of his head, "I take it you have a team in mind?"

"Yes." Drake with replied certainly, "I intend to use the first team recruited into the SID and the first team to reclassify as privateers. They are our most experienced and successful assets."

"Would it be too much to ask to know the identities of these miracle workers?" Jellico disdainfully inquired.

"Certainly, I have a presentation prepared on just this topic." Drake altered the viewer image again to display a service record picture of Brin Macen; "This is the team leader and mission commander, Brin Macen. Macen is a former Commander in Starfleet Intelligence with a highly decorated career spanning over eighty years."

"How is that possible?" Marrine asked as Jellico groaned, "He appears far too young for such a rank much less such a lengthy career."

Drake nodded, "Macen is an El-Aurian, the only member of his race to ever formally join Starfleet. An explorer and social scientist for his native world before their assimilation by the Borg, Macen proved an adept student of Alpha Quadrant cultures and quickly developed expertise in Cardassian affairs during the Federation's violent first contact with Cardassian borders. He continued to enhance this reputation throughout Starfleet's subsequent dealings with the High Command."

Jellico snorted loudly, "I worked with this arrogant prig when he was assigned to me as an advisor during the negotiations that ended the First Cardassian War. He was wilful, insubordinate and tended to act without authorisation."

"But his methods achieved their desired results." Drake countered, "A fact noted in your own reports from the period."

"A fluke." Jellico rebutted, "One of the many that comprised Brin Macen's career before he was drummed out of Starfleet."

"Before we get to the end of Brin Macen's official ties with Starfleet, let's recap the events leading up to that event." Drake suggested, "After the conclusion of the Second Cardassian War and the subsequent treaty forming the Demilitarised Zone, Macen was sent into the DMZ to infiltrate the rebel colonists group known as the Maquis."

"A group which Macen sympathised with and defected to." Jellico glared down the table at Nechayev, "Despite what some may claim."

"While it is true Macen truly sympathised with the Maquis cause," Drake clarified, "he did not endorse the radical and xenophobic measures espoused by some cell leaders. Earning the position of Chief of Intelligence for the Ronaran cell led by another Starfleet defector, Ro Laren, Macen became privy to invaluable details of the Maquis command structure, cell leaders, and operational plans that he subsequently passed on to Starfleet Intelligence. Dozens of provocative attacks were thwarted due to this information as well the redirection of some cell's efforts towards a political solution."

Drake locked eyes with Jellico, "During this time, Macen knew of or learned the identities of the other few infiltrators and never divulged their identities to the other Maquis. This is not a man that defied orders and went rogue."

Jellico shifted unhappily but remained mercifully silent, "After the Jem'Hadar sweep of the DMZ, Ro Laren and Macen brought a ragged band of Maquis survivors to Bajor to seek asylum. Commander Elias Vaughn of Starfleet Special Operations was on hand and helped persuade the Bajoran First Minister Shakaar Edon to either grant the asylum requests or offer commissions in the Militia. This would allow the Maquis to act as guides and scouts for Starfleet commando teams sent deep behind enemy lines in the former DMZ and the Badlands. Macen was reassigned as an Intelligence officer for one of the teams and finished out the Dominion War in this capacity."

"That does not explain the period following the war." Marrine reminded.

"Macen was caught up in the inevitable mopping up after a war. Following this, he stumbled across a rendezvous that would herald his next assignment and lead to the formation of the SID. Before shipping out, he received a promotion to Captain and received his first starship command. After investigating the Gulag and the conspiracy within the Council itself that created it, Macen agreed to become the first leader of select team of special investigators.

The team's first official mission ended with tragedy and Macen violating direct orders not to fire upon the pirate responsible for the enslavement and torture of over a hundred captives. Macen was reduced in rank to Commander and allowed to retired with full benefits and honours. In actuality, with the SID's support, he founded his own private firm and his crew stayed on to become our first team of irregulars."

Do we have profiles of the rest of the team?" Ross asked, cutting off any chance of Jellico speaking.

Drake nodded gratefully, "The team's tactical specialist is Rab Daggit."

The image displayed a chiselled man with close cropped greying hair. His steely blue eyes held infinite sadness and inescapable menace in them at the same time. A small discoloration at his temple was nearly disguised by the thin white scars marring his face. It was the unmistakable sign of a cortical implant.

"Daggit is a former Lt. Commander in Starfleet Security. Starfleet recruited Daggit when the Federation Council voted to rescind the prohibition blocking Angosia's entry into the UFP in exchange for the services of the veterans of the Tarsian Wars. As you all know, these veterans were mentally and physically altered and conditioned to become veritable 'super-soldiers'. After the wars end, the problem was that the modifications could not be reversed and the Angosian government chose to imprison the veterans rather than pursue a cure.

Daggit first served as a commando unit commander. Brin Macen was the unit's intelligence officer. Daggit transferred to the Enterprise-E after the Dominion treaty and briefly served as Chief Tactical Officer under Jean-Luc Picard. It was while serving in this capacity that Daggit learned of Macen's involvement with the new-born SID and requested a transfer."

"Very touching." Jellico commented drolly, "Macen has his own pet soldier. Who else is part of this menagerie?"

The room chilled as the other senior officers turned a cold eye towards the irascible Jellico; "Hal Dracas serves as the team's engineering expert."

Dracas bore a hairstyle popular during the last century. His sandy brown hair was short and slicked down to form a crown of hair. His shaggy beard emphasised the fact that Dracas' face was wider and more stolid. His mouth was twisted up in a smile that made one think he found life an ongoing bad joke. His eyes held only dark humour.

"Dracas comes from Ardanna IV and is a member of the Troglyte caste. He achieved the rank of Master Chief before resigning from Starfleet. His record is as secret as it is exemplary. Dracas served in the Special Projects Yards section of Utopia Planetia for eighteen years. He transferred to the SID at his own request."

"Is it wise to let a resource such as this man go free?" Marrine asked.

Drake shrugged, "What can we do? Arrest him? We shut down the Gulag in order to prevent such actions. I'd hate to see us revive such practices."

"So would I." Ross agreed firmly, "That's why we'll do everything in our legally mandated power to prevent a re-occurrence of such a vile travesty. So, please continue."

Still only somewhat appeased, Drake forced herself to focus at the topic at hand, "Next comes Hannah Grace."

The viewer displayed a young blonde fair-skinned woman with brown eyes. She looked as though she'd just graduated Starfleet Academy. Her lips were drawn in a bright, ebullient smile. Sheer delight at life and of living emanated from her.

"Grace is the team's flight operations specialist. She left Starfleet with the rank of Lt. J.G., a promotion she had just received. There are indications that she was involved with, and actively serving, the elusive agency known only as Section 31. Her ties with that agency have since been severed and representatives of 31 took her prisoner at one point.

Those are the known quantities of Hannah Grace. There are a few mysteries surrounding this vibrant, seemingly innocent, young woman. The greatest of them being that when she underwent the physical for Starfleet Academy's entrance exam, her results not only came out perfect, they achieved the limit of human perfection. Medical experts attempted to contact her parents but it was though they had never existed in any Federation database or colonial census."

"And she was allowed to enlist?" Jellico sputtered.

"Her background was sufficiently complete to allow entrance and her medical condition has been closely studied over the last five years." Drake answered indifferently, "This leads us to the team's latest addition, Thomas William Riker."

"Isn't that Jean-Luc Picard's whipping boy 1st Officer?" a surprised Jellico asked.

Drake shook her head with a rueful smile, "No, it's much more complicated then that. Tom Riker is Will Riker's exact twin produced by a transporter mishap on Nervala IV. Tom Riker's existence was not revealed for another eight years. During that time, he survived isolated and alone believing he was the only Riker in existence. Meeting the rapidly promoted Commander Riker came as something of a shock to Lt. Riker."

"Rapidly promoted my ass." Jellico muttered, "Riker's turned down more commands than anyone in the fleet. At this rate, he's going to become Starfleet's first career 1st Officer."

"Lt. Riker was as appalled as you yourself, Admiral." Drake revealed, "He saw Commander Riker as having wasted all the opportunities that he had paid for. In the end, Lt. Riker adopted the use of both Riker's middle name and reported to the USS Gandhi as Lt. Thomas William Riker."

"Riker's start on the Gandhi was somewhat tumultuous. The 1st Officer saw him as a threat to her position. The crew viewed him as an oddity, the product of freak mishap and worried that they were somehow transporter duplicates switched for the originals. All these factors combined with Will Riker's fame within Starfleet drove Tom Riker to pursue his career in areas Will Riker had never ventured." Drake continued her biographical sketch, "He transferred to the Gandhi's Flight Operations department and became a courier pilot. It was in this facility that he met a Maquis crew while attempting to deliver medical aid to a plague infected planet. The leader of that Maquis cell was one former Lt. Commander Chakotay. I'm sure we're all familiar with his name due to his status as 1st Officer of Starfleet's only starship in the Delta Quadrant, the USS Voyager."

Drake took a deep breath before plunging, "Two weeks after Riker's contact with Chakotay, he went AWOL."

"See," Jellico grinned, "there's just something untrustworthy about a Riker."

"Including their father, the Ambassador-at-large?" Nechayev innocently asked.

Jellico's silence provided Drake with an opening to continue, "Tom Riker's last mission for the Maquis was nearly his first as well. Knowing that Starfleet Security would not have added sub-molecular scans in order to insure his identity as Will Riker, Tom infiltrated Deep Space 9, posing as Commander William Riker enjoying a much deserved shore leave. His true object was to steal the USS Defiant and penetrate deep inside Cardassian space to strike a hidden shipyard.

With DS9's CO Ben Sisko co-operating with Gul Dukat in Riker's pursuit, the shipyard was revealed to both Starfleet and the High Command. It belonged to the Obsidian Order and, as would soon be revealed, the ships produced there were intended for an attack upon the Founder's homeworld in the Gamma Quadrant. Surrounded by Cardassians on all sides, Riker was forced to surrender to Dukat. Sisko managed to convince Dukat to remove the usual death sentence for Riker's actions and have it reduced to hard labour. Despite Riker's misgivings he agreed after it was arranged his crew would face trial in Federation space."

"If he's supposed to be on a Cardassian labour planet, how is he Macen's 1st Officer?" Ross asked sceptically.

"Riker was freed from the labour camps less than a year after his arrival. His extraction seems to be the result of a rogue Tal Shiar operation headed up by Commander Sela. Riker had apparently befriended Sela's mentor, who had been held in the same camp as Riker. It seems in exchange for his friendship and for saving his life, the mentor wanted Riker set free. Rumours abound as to whether events unfolded according to the mentor's wishes but in the end, Riker was a free man." Drake answered without reservation, "Riker was not seen throughout the Dominion War but unverified reports have him smuggling in foodstuffs, medical supplies and weapons to local resistance cells on Dominion occupied Federation worlds. Wherever and however Macen contacted Riker, he immediately offered him the role of Executive Officer of the ship and team."

"Macen sounds like some mythical messianic character." Jellico groused, "Everyone that meets him takes up his phaser and follows him."

"Not in the case of the next individual." Drake advised, "Radil Jenrya is the other recent addition to the team after being recruited by Rab Daggit in the course of a mission."

The imagery displayed an intense looking Bajoran woman.. She wore her raven tresses in a plaited ponytail down her back . Her hazel eyes radiated a disturbing gleam that granted Radil the essence of the warrior poet of Bajoran myth. She wore the traditional earring of the faith of the Prophets in her right ear as well as sporting several tattoos on the exposed portions of her arms.

"Radil Jenrya was literally born into the Jerrien Resistance cell. When the cell needed capital to purchase weapons, Radil and several others were contracted out as mercenaries in order to acquire those funds. After the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor ended, most of the cell members accepted the Provisional Government's amnesty offer but many who'd been loaned out to other wars did not. Radil served in a number of campaigns across a dozen worlds. Her last contract as a mercenary was to the Orion Syndicate. It was there that Rab Daggit found her and… persuaded her to throw in with Macen's team. Since that time she has proven herself a redoubtable member of the group."

"My god!" Jellico exclaimed, "We're down to recruiting mercenaries now."

Drake ignored Jellico but worried about Ross' apparent discomfort considering who was next on the list, "Next comes the operational systems specialist, T'Kir."

The viewer first displayed a young Vulcan woman with a wild glaze to her eyes. This image shifted to a portrait of a contrasting individual. The frayed, flyaway raven hair had shifted to her current just below the jaw touseled coif that flipped outwards at the end. Her vivid blue eyes now sparkled with intelligence and impish humour instead of lunacy.

"T'Kir was born to the Vulcan colony of Shial located in the DMZ. The colony was founded by a group of Vulcan security agents who lived amongst Romulan defectors. After the destruction of the colony and the death of her family, T'Kir joined the Maquis cell under Ro Laren's command."

"And met Macen of course." Jellico remarked snidely.

Drake ignored him, "Shortly after joining the Maquis, T'Kir began displaying mental instabilities. Macen was one of the few willing to work closely with her and they became partners."

"They are lovers then?" Marrine inquired.

"No." Drake clarified, "Macen was involved with another woman when he and T'Kir met. They became the closest of friends instead. It's been observed that she's the closest thing he has to a family in the Alpha Quadrant, or any other quadrant for that matter. Following the Jem'Hadar purge of the DMZ, T'Kir underwent a total breakdown resulting in a psychotic episode in which she tried to kill Macen. Macen remanded her over to Federation authorities for psychiatric treatment.

Upon receiving the Gulag assignment, Macen decided he needed an Ops officer he could trust implicitly and broke T'Kir out of the Andes Institute. Doing his own research, he discovered that the Vulcans withheld vital information regarding treatments for her condition. T'Kir suffers from an acute condition stemming from an overdeveloped telepathic endowment. This ability can be curbed to manageable levels with a combination of herbal therapies bolstered by mind-melds. Since Macen is empathic by nature, he provides his services as her telepathic focus."

Ross squirmed uncomfortably, "I'm happy to hear the young lady is healthier but does that justify her continuing presence on the team?"

Drake gave him a thin smile, "For starters, Macen would quit if you forced her off the team and secondly, she the best damn cyberengineer anyone has ever seen. She can reprogram a starship in just under an hour to sit up and bark while taking you through a slingshot manoeuvre around the sun and there isn't a blessed thing anyone could do about it."

"No one's that good." Jellico refuted.

"You haven't seen this woman's work. She underwent a three-month crash course to prepare her for the SID. One day between classes she idly reprogrammed the Academy's computers to give everyone top scores and locked the computer out." Drake informed him with a humourless laugh, "It had to be replaced. Some of our best engineers are still trying to unlock that system."

"And you're allowing this woman access to Starfleet systems?" Marrine demanded with a note of panic.

"We couldn't deny her access if we wanted to." Drake replied in resignation, "We might as well 'grant' it to her."

"The final member of the team is their medical specialist, Kort." A typical blustering image of a Klingon appeared on the screen, but the eyes held a haunted quality; "The doctor was recruited after his banishment from the Empire and has proved an invaluable asset to the team."

"He was banished from the Klingon Empire?" Marrine asked, "That is extremely difficult. Can you expand on his crimes?"

"Kort was a member of the Chancellor's House Staff under Gowron.. Specifically, he was assigned to the stables to mind over Gowron's pet targs."

"The man's a vet and you have him looking after a covert ops team?" Jellico barely restrained his pique.

"Kort is a battlefield surgeon, which in Klingon culture means he is a warrior and a doctor." Drake fired back with equally restrained intensity, "Kort's original crime was achieving notoriety in the field. Gowron's punishment, disguised as a reward, was to take Kort into his House. Humiliated, Kort swiftly began drowning his sorrows in bloodwine. When Kort was finally called for an actual emergency, he was so drunk he couldn't treat them. Gowron had gone out with his pets to hunt game. Wild targs ambushed Gowron's and they were mortally wounded. Kort passed out while performing surgery and they died. Gowron stripped Kort of all honours and of a name in the Empire. His previous deeds were known to Starfleet Intelligence and an approach was made as soon as Kort crossed the Federation border. Now his only concern is about redeeming his name and serving his comrades' needs."

"I still don't see why we should approve assigning this team to the mission." Jellico proclaimed defensively, "What do they have to offer that the other SID teams lack?"

"They have a commander who has over four hundred years of experience. This experience includes dealing with the Borg, the Cardassians, and the Jem'Hadar. Macen possesses the discretion necessary to maintain the secrecy established by the Sanctuary Protocols. Finally, Macen and his team bring the right blend of skills necessary for the job in addition to an unbroken success record." Drake replied answered with conviction, "And if that isn't enough, there is another factor. Macen's team once had one other member. This woman was a Trill serving in Starfleet. The previous host of the Trill symbiot had known Macen as well and a relationship quickly formed. Volunteering to accompany Macen on his mission to infiltrate the Maquis, she became Macen's aforementioned lover. After the war, she was reunited with Macen for the Gulag mission but left the team, and Starfleet, upon its completion."

"How exactly does this pertain to the matter at hand?" Ross asked in bewilderment.

"Lisea Danan joined the Daystrom Institute upon leaving Starfleet." Drake answered while enjoying Nechayev's smirk; "She was aboard the Daystrom vessel as it came under fire. Presumably, if the crew is still alive, she is to. Although she and Macen are no longer lovers, they are friends, and Macen will move heaven and hell to help a friend."

"This mission is about far more than rescuing one hostage." Jellico sternly reminded her.

"Yes, sir. This mission is primarily about assessing the threat and capabilities of the Nova Romans. Secondly, if the hazard is considered imminent and considerable, neutralising the Roman peril to the Federation is the next goal. The final objective, if permissible, is to rescue any an all Federation citizens held prisoner by the Nova Romans." Drake summarised for the admirals, "This team is, if not more, professional than any mainline service unit. The mission will be pursued as devised without interpretation or deviation. This ends my mission proposal. It's now up to a vote."

Nechayev and Ross immediately voted for Drake's proposed action plan. Jellico voted against almost as swiftly. Marrine hovered for several moments while reviewing pieces of the briefing on her tabletop terminal. Finally the moment of decision came and she voted in the affirmative.

Although disgruntled, Jellico tried to impartially move to the next set of questions; "So what kind of equipment does this team have? What do they employ as their mode of transportation?"

"The SPYards supplied a prototype Ju'day-class scoutship to Macen's possession." Drake answered with incorrigible mirth, "In fact, as stipulated in Macen's contract, the ship is now legally his property."